


You, Behave Yourself!

by MistyBeethoven



Series: "Yes, I Really Am This Pathetic!" or "How to Say I Love You With a Story" [23]
Category: The Gift (2000)
Genre: Acceptance, Anger, Anger Management, Attraction, Avoidant Personality Disorder, BBW, Churches & Cathedrals, F/M, Falling In Love, Fights, Food Fight, Inspired by a Warner Bros. Cartoon, Love/Hate, Making Up, Melons - Freeform, Milkshakes, Opposites Attract, Overweight, Porn Watching, Rehabilitation, Romantic Comedy, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert, Shyness, Therapy, Weight Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22590973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistyBeethoven/pseuds/MistyBeethoven
Summary: In a new program to help members of its congregation conquer their individual problems, my church pairs me with former murder suspect and known wife beater Donnie Barksdale to help him with his anger issues and me with my social anxiety and shyness. We're mismatched at best and oftentimes find ourselves in odd and uncomfortable situations. However, when Barksdale shows that he's not so tough underneath it all and I discover my shyness isn't so strong around him, we find ourselves growing closer than the church had intended.*Inspired by the Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam cartoon "From Hare to Heir."
Relationships: Donnie Barksdale/Me
Series: "Yes, I Really Am This Pathetic!" or "How to Say I Love You With a Story" [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589944
Kudos: 9





	1. Anger and Shyness Management (Bunny)

**Author's Note:**

> So now I come to writing the entry to this series with the wife beater Donnie "Motherfucking" Barksdale and what do I do, you ask? Why I turn it into a riff on that old Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam cartoon "From Hare to Heir" that's what I do!
> 
> Actually, I like Donnie. Sure he's pretty nasty sometimes but I honestly don't think he'd kill anybody. And he seemed surprisingly sincere on the witness stand.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donnie Barksdale and I meet each other for the first time.

"What's up Don?" I asked Donnie Barksdale in my best Mel Blanc/Bugs Bunny impression.

I thought it might help ease us both into our current uncomfortable situation a bit. However, seeing the look on the bearded redneck's face I was beginning to rethink my decision.

"What? You think that's funny?" he retaliated in a deep southern accent. "You think it's funny to imitate a smartass rabbit that bugs the shit out of people? You kinda look like a bunny. You know what I do with rabbits? I skin and eat them. Rabbit stew. That's what I do with dumb ass rabbits."

Okay, I thought knowing I had thought poorly.

"Actually, I always preferred Daffy Duck anyway," I said, trying to make things better.

He leaned forward closer towards my face and I smelled whiskey on his breath.

"And I got me a license to go and shoot ducks too," Barksdale informed me. He straightened up and mimicked holding a gun and shooting it into the sky with the accompanying sound effect coming out of his mouth. "Duck soup."

I stared at him feeling very much like a bunny or a duck.

His eyes traveling from my brown haired head to my old sneakers, he laughed derisively. "You sure look like you know all about food and eating. I guess, they sent me a butterball thinking I wouldn't want to fuck her."

If he had wanted to hurt me centering on my weight had been a pretty darn good place to start and I held my clipboard to my chest and stared at him with what I could only assume was pain in my green eyes. Donnie Barksdale looked a little bit taken aback by this and backed away.

We stood outside the doorway to his house staring at each other.

"Come in," he suddenly grunted, turning back towards the inner sanctum of his home and slamming the door further open in indication for me to follow him which I meekly did.

I looked around his house but didn't want to gawk or invade his privacy, fearing what retribution or insult I would face. The main points of interest, for a casual glance, was a large green sofa, with tufts of its packing falling out and a brown and equally worn chair both placed around a tv set with accompanying VHS and DVD player. A herd of empty beer cans and bottles lau on the floor. I was afraid that I would have to call on God to part them for me like he did the Red Sea when Donnie turned around, saw my hesitation and snapped, "Well just kick the damn things to the side, girl!"

"Erin," I stated. "My name is _Erin_."

"As if I give a shit," he replied, plopping his blue jeans clad ass in the chair and picking up the bottle of beer he had been presumably nursing before I had interrupted him.

"Well we're going to be in one another's company for a while," I commented as I sat down on the sofa and hoped all it had stuck between the cushions was loose change and peanuts.

"Yeah," he laughed bitterly. "I don't know where the church gets off thinking they'll change anything with this damn foolish idea. Ain't nobody gonna change by this little experiment of theirs. Let me tell you that, Erin. I'll still be an angry son of a bitch who likes to beat the tar out of things and you'll still be a shy turtle that likes to crawl back inside of her shell whenever somebody comes along. I can tell you're itching to right now."

I sighed and looked at the fading carpet under my feet. He was probably right. Still the church we were both members of had insisted that those in the congregation with certain social problems be paired up in a belief that if somebody had God, Christ and a friend by their side any impediment could be overcome.

With Barksdale it was his violent nature. He was a known wife beater and had even been accused of murder when one of his many mistresses winded up dead. Now divorced, free and under the church's employ as caretaker he was practically ordered to take part in this _experiment_ as he called it. He was less than pleased about it, though, and I feared when I would have to tell him the other added clause to the whole deal.

Confrontation wasn't my strong point. Actually anything social wasn't and this was why I had been drafted into the program also. I suffered from something known as Avoidant Personality Disorder. This meant that I was not only shy but _painfully_ so. Throughout my life I had tried not to talk to people or partake in social events. I had even had my sister make most of my telephone calls and such for me. The fear that other people would find me weird, ugly and stupid weighed on me heavily during even the smallest of interactions. Going to church was a no no but my mom had been on the roster so after her death they had recruited me. Hating to say no and disappoint people, I had agreed to this. I knew I would, at least, only be required to see a single human being this time.

Now seeing who it was, though, I was having second thoughts.

"What's that?" Donnie Barksdale asked, disturbing my thoughts. 

The clipboard I had been holding had fallen over and I could see him trying to read the now upside down words revealed to him.

"Ummm...the...the church wanted me to tell you that I'll be reporting back to them whenever you lose your temper. They will d-dock your pay whenever this occurs."

Hearing this new stipulation, the bearded man was livid. His face was turning red and his hand tightened around the neck of the beer bottle clutched tightly in his hand.

"Sorry," I apologized. "But I will be very fair and only take off money when you do something that I feel constitutes acting unnecessarily angry or violent," I promised.

In a second, the bottle was released entirely as Donnie threw it against a wall, hitting a painting of dogs playing poker hanging there, knocking it off and then spraying it with the beer inside as the glass broke and its contents were unleashed on the yellow paint on the wall.

Looking at my clipboard, I quickly scribbled something nervously down.

"That's minus one dollar," I informed my new companion as he cursed me and quickly lost another one too.

* * *

Keeping his temper was not one of Donnie's strong points, even when he knew he was losing money from his paycheck with every burst of anger. During the first few days of our time together, I saw him constantly fall to his rage as he would let any minor thing set him off. Driving in his pickup he'd yell at the other drivers and would also do things that warranted being yelled at. I cowered in the passenger seat, trying to hide behind the clipboard should I be recognized and my reputation tarnished or having to see the other driver's resulting anger, confusion or pain.

I would inform Barksdale that I would be listing this amount or that to be taken off of his paycheck but this would always make him more enraged causing a vicious cycle of me putting my subtraction math skills to the test.

One of the most embarrassing things, however, was constantly interrupting my new " _friend_ " while he was with some random girl he had picked up at the bar or bumping into the woman on her way out. They always looked at me in the same way, wondering if I was the next in line or merely Donnie Barksdale's cleaning lady. Given my weight, they probably decided on the latter, assuming Donnie would never choose to satisfy his lust with a chubby companion like myself. They, of course, were thin and trashy and I wondered what the former Mrs. Barksdale looked like.

On one occasion, near the end of the first month of our church appointed arrangement, I slipped into Donnie's house as a big haired blonde was slipping out. 

"Donnie?" I called out, expecting him to be decent now that last night's entertainment had left.

I was wrong.

The man stepped out of his bedroom in the suit he had been born in, holding the clothes that he _should_ have been wearing in his big hands.

"Yeah," he mumbled and went to his favorite chair, tossing the clothing onto the floor before it. "It's about that time again, huh? Little bit of paradise at night and Missy Clipboard throughout the rest of the blasted day."

I tried to avert my eyes but I found it hard to for some reason and by that point I'd pretty well seen everything, from his nice cock and balls to his equally cute butt. I squirmed where I stood, coming to my senses and trying to hide behind that same aforementioned clipboard. "Yes. It's that time," I mumbled from behind it, my voice squeaking.

"Another day another dollar you knock off," he commented.

I finally peeked out when I thought it was safe after hearing the sound of a zipper. He was adjusting his jeans and I blushed and swallowed harshly seeing his bulge and knowing I had seen now what lay hidden by the fabric. I felt hot and woozy and had to resist fanning myself with my clipboard to regain my composure. 

He put on a yellow t-shirt and was placing a red flannel shirt over it when he looked at me. "So what did you rate Tina? Or could you see her past her hair? Her bush was almost that big but not the same shade if you get my drift."

I guessed that I had successfully crossed the line to become one of the buddies to whom he could say lewd comments to about his latest conquest.

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe you should stop and concentrate on just _one_ girl," I found my bravery long enough to suggest past my discomfort.

He laughed as he sat down in the chair and started to put a dinghy sock on his left foot. "I did that. To a woman named Valerie. We called it a _marriage_ for a bit."

"Yes but from what I heard you didn't exactly stay focused on her," I returned.

"Oh is that what you _heard_?" he snickered as he put the other sock on.

I nodded, a gesture he didn't see. "And that you hit her too."

Donnie stopped and stared at me. 

"You shouldn't have hit her," I stated in almost a plea. 

He rose from the chair and slowly walked towards me as I once more held my clipboard tightly to my chest for vain protection. Step by step, he backed me into the wall and I felt it against my round ass. A hand shot quickly to my side as I started to shake and then another appeared abruptly in front of my face. Extending a finger, Donnie Barksdale started to wave it in my face. "And you should mind your business and watch your mouth and what the Hell comes out of it, Erin."

I'd received my warning and looked into eyes staring angrily into mine as I felt breath from flaring nostrils hitting me square on my face.

"But it _is_ my business," I argued. "I'm supposed to make sure you behave. It's my job."

Donnie took his hand from off of the wall and grabbed the clipboard from out of my arms, his hands ripping it free in a movement that hurt me and made me cry out. Staring at me in defiance, he flung it over on to the middle of the carpet in the living room and then slammed both of his palms to either side of my head. Leaning his face close to mine, he hissed madly, "Then you should _quit_."

I stared up at him wounded once again and his face softened for a bit, seeing my fear. Then he turned around and hastily stomped out of the room and the house, leaving me alone. Shaking as I realized what had just happened, and that I was suddenly by myself, I walked over to my clipboard and fell on my knees in aftershock. My hands were trembling as I picked the item up.

It almost made my writing of 

_**\- $25**_

illegible.

I would be damned if I was going to give up my task of helping Donnie Barksdale and having him help me too. If I did the church would try to see to it that I was anyway. 

Shy I might be but I was pissed off too right then, following the man's angry explosion, combined with a healthy dose of stubbornness.

And I could also be a _very_ wascally wabbit when called on to be. 


	2. Lunch, Five Dollars and Twenty-five Cents and a Porno Film (Duck)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donnie and I grow used to one another.

I was stuck in Donnie Barksdale's residence after his angry departure. He hadn't locked his door and I couldn't leave without images flooding my mind of his place being robbed in his absence and the redneck chasing after me in the need for angry and swift retribution. At the same time, I didn't feel right exploring the place and invading his privacy.

Even though I had just seen him butt naked.

So for a while I sat in his favorite chair, doodling on my clipboard. 

When that became old, I tried to find something to read nearby and out in the open. However, Playboy and Penthouse magazine didn't interest me much and only made me feel worse about my weight and body. 

Properly depressed, and being an emotional eater, I walked over to the kitchen, believing that food wasn't too personal a possession and could always be looked at without offense.

I soon made the unsurprising discovery that Donnie Barksdale had beer. 

A _lot_ of beer.

It was in his fridge and in his cupboard.

But there was hardly any actual food. All that I could find was a few tins of brown beans, a moldy loaf of bread and some peanuts.

"No wonder he's so angry all the time," I said to myself. "From the looks of it he hardly ever eats! His tummy must be very upset at him!"

My mind suddenly forming an idea, and a smile spreading across my face, I grabbed the phone book in the hope of finding a delivery service that would pick me up some items at the local Piggly Wiggly. When Donnie Barksdale returned home for lunch, he would find not only me but a good home cooked meal waiting for him.

Then hopefully I could get out of being stuck in his house.

* * *

Hearing the door opening, I looked up from the knife i was just setting on the table to see Donnie entering. He was not alone; a frowsy blonde was with him. Apparently, the man had been hoping for some afternoon delight, I realized. Upon seeing me standing in his kitchen the man looked incensed. 

"What in tarnation are you still doing here, girl?" he erupted. "I want you out NOW!"

That was when the scent of the lunch I had prepared for him hit his nostrils. His brain worked well enough for him to look down at the table and the meal waiting for him.

"What the Hell is that?" he asked as his latest conquest to be slid up next to his side.

"Chicken fried steak, collard greens and mashed potatoes," I announced with a flourish of my hands. "I thought you might be hungry after slaving away for the church all morning "

Something happened inside of Donnie's soul then; I could see it clearly written on his features. He looked up at me and seemed obviously confused as if the gesture had touched him somehow.

Or maybe he was just hungry.

"Are we going to stand here all day or are we getting down to business?" the woman asked, slinking up to him and pressing her thin but curvy self up against his side. "Let your properly big cook put it in the oven to stay warm. I've got a far better place for you to put your own piece of meat."

I frowned, looking down at the meal I had carefully made, fearing it was about to go to waste. He could always heat it up later. The blonde on the other hand may not stay hot for quite so long.

"I think you'd better get out of here," Donnie Barksdale said and I thought he was talking to me.

I felt tears stinging my eyes but I tried to comfort myself that that was what I wanted for the moment anyway: to get out of his house.

Then I raised my head and saw that his words had been directed at his date for the hour.

"Pardon me," she said, taking her hands off of him and placing them on her hips instead.

"Go back to the bar and find your next prick," he snapped.

In a huff, the woman spun around and headed for the door. 

I watched as Donnie walked towards the table. Expecting to hear the familiar sound of his feet hitting beer cans, Donnie looked down in shock to discover his floor was clean. While waiting for the delivery service, I had sorted the cans from the bottles so that the man would finally be able to see his floor again and get a refund in the process the next time he visited the beer store.

Sitting his nice ass in the chair he looked more confounded than ever.

"You did this for me?" he asked.

"Yes."

"After I threw your clipboard on to my carpet and shouted at you?"

I nodded. 

Donnie smiled as he grabbed his knife and fork. "I guess, I whupped some sense into that thick skull of yours after all," he said as he started to cut into the chicken steak.

Sighing, I fell in to the chair next to me, rested my arm on the table and my chin in the palm of my hand.

"Get your elbow off of the table! That's not polite!" he reprimanded, talking with a mouth full of food.

* * *

That night, back in my own house and in the safety of my bed, I thought of Donnie Barksdale. He had seemed a little bit softer towards me for the rest of the day as he permitted me to follow him around again. The insults had still been there and his flashes of temper but he was slightly more considerate. Thinking of his usually frowning bearded face, I flipped over on the mattress, wondering if the way to a man's heart was really through his stomach like they always claimed.

But I didn't want his heart, I thought to myself, with my own frown on my lips and a strange ache in my chest.

 _Did_ I?

* * *

When Barksdale tried to grab my clipboard by the end of the month, I held it closer to my chest and although his hand went for my wrist he stopped himself in time before he tried to pry the thing out of my grasp again. He looked at me a little bit in anger and a little bit in shame.

"Sorry," he mumbled an apology, placing his hands on his hips and looking at me sheepishly.

"It's okay," I replied.

"I just wanted to see how I did," he explained and I was scared to tell him. Seeing my fear, he outright demanded that I tell him.

"You have five dollars and twenty five cents for the month," I answered hesitantly.

"You're joking," he said in awe.

I shook my head, sympathy in my eyes.

"Shit!" he yelled. "How the Hell am I supposed to live on five dollars and twenty-five cents?"

He looked very cute then with his brown eyes sincerely sad and dejected. Donnie Barksdale was very handsome. It was a fact I'd been constantly reminded of as I spent time with him, sitting quietly on his sofa or cowering in his truck. Even if he could be violently angry his face was rather sweet and the odd part was that his personality could be too. The fact was that I liked this lumbering hulk and found him attractive. In a burst of new timidity I realized in horror that I _was_ attracted to him and cared for him. That was probably another reason why seeing him naked the one day had affected me so badly. I was only usually attracted to the men that I genuinely cared for.

I quickly reached inside of my wallet, which really wasn't a wallet at all but rather a pencil case, and pulled out a fifty dollar bill. "Here," I stated.

Donnie turned to look at me after having been staring at the carpet in shock. He looked at the bill offered to him. "Are you serious?" he asked in suspicion.

"Yes," I replied. "You can pay me back. You'll get better. I know you will."

Actually I knew nothing of the sort and didn't expect to ever see the fifty dollars again. Still, I doubted Barksdale would ever take charity unless it had some statement like that attatched to it.

"Thank you, Erin," he said taking it. His touch was somehow gentle and his eyes raised from it to mine and he suddenly looked at me in a way that made me blush and shift in my sneakers, which were as well used as the couch was.

"Where you come from?" he asked. "You ain't from around here I take it."

"I'm from Canada," I replied.

"Shit," he said with a smile. "How'd a girl from up north get to be here?"

It's a long story, I wanted to reply. Just as long, per se, as why a boy from Canada would be portraying white trash from Georgia.

* * *

I think my giving him the fifty dollars had something of an effect on him. He was a tiny bit more polite and tried to catch himself before he completely lost it. Somewhere in the back of his mind he probably realized, I knew, that what I had done, and what he had committed by taking my money, was charity and his white trash pride couldn't stand for the chance that he'd accept it again.

By the end of the day, he made it with only having two dollars and fifty cents subtracted from next month's paycheck.

It was an all time best for him.

When I told him this he looked rather pleased with himself. "Say, you wanna come over to my place tonight and watch a movie?"

I was shocked. Usually I would have thought that this would interfere with his other nightly pursuits. Then I realized suddenly that I hadn't seen his usual parade of girls around. Ever since that day I had fixed him lunch, an act I had repeated several times since, they had slowly vanished.

"Sure," I said. "I'll bring a pizza."

"Good," he said with a nod and a slightly shy smile. "That would have cut into my fifty and I need to buy me some more beer."

* * *

I brought a simple extra large pepperoni pizza over to Barksdale's that night. One topping seemed safe enough and I knew he could pick it off if he didn't like it. Donnie didn't bother getting dressed up for the evening; he was still in a t-shirt, plaid, flannel shirt and jeans when he opened the door, and neither had I; a t-shirt and pants would suffice for what I felt was merely a night in with a buddy to the man.

With something of a jolt passing through me, Donnie showed me his shelf with available options for the movie we would be watching.

"These...these are all porn!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah," Donnie said proudly. "Me and my daddy would watch these together when he wasn't whuppin' me upside the head and before he ran off with a barmaid."

This sudden and casual revelation explained quite a lot, I thought to myself. I refrained from asking the poor man if his mama had happened to be his auntie also. After all, Flowers in the Attic was one of my favorite books.

"I'll let you choose tonight's entertainment," he stated.

"That's so kind of you," I mumbled.

"No problem," he returned.

I looked at all of the cases with their barely clad women on the covers and thought I recognized some of them. My parents ran a video store out of our house; right near the kitchen. They placed the pornos on the top of a shelf but often the blue movies could be found scattered about. They had probably given me a bad idea about what I believed a woman's body should look like. I had spent most of my childhood as a fat girl wishing she could be Jessica Rabbit someday. Now I was a fat woman still wishing she would be Jessica Rabbit one day.

Barksdale saw me studying the covers. "None of them girls are the actual actresses in the films," he commented with the studious seriousness of one who was an expert in the matter. "I've watched them a million times and they ain't in there."

That didn't surprise me.

My eyes rested on a movie I was shocked, however, was in his collection. "Mary Poppins!" I exclaimed. "What the heck is she doing here?"

"She's hot," Donnie commented. "But you can't pick that one. I watched it last night. I'm sick and tired of watching all them chimney sweeps prancing about like pansies on them rooftops!"

Returning it to the shelf, I remarked. "Chim Chim Cheree was one of my favorite songs when i was growing up. Right up there with Halfway Down the Stairs and Love Child."

"Pervert," he snickered upon hearing the last and I sighed.

"What's this one?" I asked my eyes falling on a film called The Opening of Misty Beethoven.

"Oh that's an adaption of something called Pygmalion."

I nodded my head a few times appreciatively. "So you have some class with your porn."

"Yeah, but I ain't seen no pig in it."

I could have explained to him why not but didn't bother. Being a sucker for My Fair Lady and old Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle I settled on it. Besides I had always liked the name Misty ever since I had had a tiny little Himalayan kitten named that when I was a kid. It had died prematurely from what I had heard, I'd been too young to remember it, but I'd always had a fond place in my heart for the poor little kitten.

Besides Misty Beethoven was a pretty sounding name, I thought. Maybe one day I'd use it as an alias or pseudonym.

We parked ourselves onto the sofa and started to watch it somewhar against my will, but being too much of a coward to object. My AVPD was in full swing as the movie started as was my embarrassment as it started to show people doing what people usually waited to do behind closed doors. 

I began to ramble as I tried to ignore them, the sounds they were making during their sexual acts making me blush. 

"When I was a kid, my dad accidentally got me Fritz the Cat to watch," I said rather loudly, trying to block the sounds out, as I looked to the side. "My mom found out later when I had told her how good it was and she put it on for her and my sister to watch. I then said I'd fallen asleep during it the first time and hadn't really seen it. I've never been sure if it was the truth or a lie to get out of trouble...

"My dad and mom ran a video store. The pornos were kept on the top shelf. My grade school teacher wanted to rent one called Rasputin the Mad Monk cuz she thought it was a documentary. Her husband, knowing it was, covertly dissuaded her."

My mind was still racing; my tongue was also.

"All the bigwigs in the small town where we lived would rent 'em. Dad kept the real bad, illegal Quebec ones in the trunk of his car...he'd rent 'em out from there. Mom refused to. When this one guy asked her for one, she gave him Bambi instead in revolt...

"This one woman got mixed up once and rented a Hannah and Barbara cartoon called Penelope Pitstop. But she liked it...she'd had a hard day and said it amused her..."

The pornography was still going on so I continued hurriedly. "My father used to sit in the living room and watch them while my grandma, his mom, sat in the corner. 'What are they doing, Walter?' she used to ask. 'Shut up!' he'd always hurl back."

I turned to find Donnie Barksdale staring at me dumbstruck.

After a few seconds he finally spoke.

"What the hell was that nonsense?" he boomed. "Do you think I want to hear that shit? Now shut up and watch the fucking movie!"

I gulped and gave it an effort until I put my hands over my eyes, not willing to see anymore.

"Watch the fucking movie!" Donnie shouted at me as he finally saw what I was doing.

"But I don't want to!" I squealed.

"Why the Hell not?" he demanded.

"Because the men are all showing their penises! I'm sure they are very nice penises but I don't want to see them! I don't want to see anybody's penis except for the man I love!" I cried out from behind my hands.

I heard the sound of the VCR remote and peered out from my hiding place to see Donnie staring at me again in dumbfounded awe. "What the Hell did you let me put this on for then?" he suddenly asked.

"I didn't want to hurt your feelings," I answered, lowering my hands. "And I'm..."

"Shy," Donnie Barksdale finished.

I nodded, staring at him sadly.

"Right," he said, running a hand over his bearded face. "I keep forgetting I'm supposed to be helping you out too."

We sat on the couch in silence.

"Are you a virgin girl?" he asked after a bit of quiet contemplation.

I blushed and he pretty well knew the answer.

"Great I'm going to Hell for showing a virgin a porno on church run property! I'll lose my blasted job if they find out!" the usually tough man fretted. Damn you, you stupid girl, you really are shy!" he exclaimed.

"No!" I contested. "That has nothing to do with that! I mean, I'd be shy but that's not the reason why! I only believe in having sex with someone I love. I only _want_ to have sex with someone that I love! That's why I'm saving myself."

"Like why you didn't want to see those guys' willies but..." Donnie fixed me with a gaze that made my heart beat quickly and I wanted to hide behind my hands again. "you couldn't stop looking at mine when you came in that one morning. What does that mean exactly Erin?"

I hated knowing that he had noticed that but kept it to himself this whole time. We stared at each other in silence because I couldn't answer his question in any safe way. Thankfully he looked just as apprehensive about my potential reply so he suddenly changed the subject altogether, returning to his previous epiphany.

"Well damnit, woman, I think it's about time for me to take the bull by the horns and turn this whole situation around for a change."

"What do you mean?" I asked instantly afraid.

Standing up Donnie Barksdale looked at me in smug satisfaction. "Tomorrow is my day off and I am taking you out to help you overcome that shyness of yours. Now hand me that gold darn clipboard!"

I looked up at him, trying my best to ignore the bulge in his pants that was informing me that he had been previously enjoying the movie before out little interruption. "Mother," I stated like a certain black fowl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do love The Opening of Misty Beethoven even though I don't watch the sex scenes. Jamie Gillis' Seymour Love is classic and Constance Money and he created a wonderful duo. 
> 
> Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle would not needed to have had sex though. The two of them just sitting in a room together would have been enough...the air would have just been filled with sex. Period.
> 
> Nothing to Hide is also a very sweet adult film but once again, like with all the blue movies I'm familiar with, I don't watch the sex scenes. I love Lenny and Karen!
> 
> My history in all of the entries in this series is real btw.


	3. A Pile of Jeans, a Milkshake, Melons and an Eggplant (Skunk)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donnie tries to help me with my shyness as we grow closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I edited the final line of the previous chapter to suit with the Waner Bros. theme.

Donnie couldn't really take any money from off of my paycheck; It didn't work that way. My money did not come from the church and I had simply volunteered to help them to keep an eye on Barkdale's temper outbursts as we helped to coach one another with our social problems. But that didn't stop the redneck from lording that clipboard over me once he got his covetous hands on it. When he took me out the following day, he held on to the darn thing like Moses must have done with the tablets when he came down from the Mount Sinai. He'd also scribble in it constantly everthing he thought I was doing wrong; including such little things as not meeting his eyes on some occassions or staying quiet around him.

However, when I did try to talk to him I stumbled my words which also garnered a subtraction from some imaginary figure inside of Donnie Barksdale's mind.

The first instruction the man had me follow was to walk several blocks with him and greet every single person we passed with eye contact, a nod and a hello. Since I usually kept my eyes on the sidewalk or ground whenever I walked anywhere, avoiding looking at any passersbys, this was extremely uncomfortable for me.

It seemed to make the people walking past us uncomfortable as well, especially when those in the distance knew what I was doing and the shy, shaky and awkward hello which awaited them. I saw some people crossing the street to avoid encountering me and my imposing companion altogether.

"Can I stop now?" I asked. "They're looking at me like I'm crazy."

"You just gotta keep at it woman!" he instructed.

I studied him walking by me, looking proud as the clipboard was clasped tightly in his hand but always remaining silent, without as much as a grunt to our fellow pedestrians.

"Why aren't you saying hello to them?" I inquired.

"Are you kidding?" he looked down at me incredulously. "They'd think I was _crazy_!"

Sighing I looked at my shoes only to hear Donnie chastise me and demand that I raise my head. Which I did even though I did not want to.

* * *

Donnie next brought me to a store where we walked around aimlessly but with the same command to continue on with my salutations to the strangers. As I saw a grandmother approaching with her granddaughter, I couldn't help it; I dodged out of the way, knocking a piece of clothing off of the rack. From an aisle further down I saw the woman bending over to place the article of clothing back where it had been.

"I'm sorry," I called out to her.

"It's okay," she told me before moving on.

I turned to find my companion staring at me in disapproval. Cowering, I knew what he was about to say before he even opened his scowling mouth.

"Why'd you make that old woman pick that up for you?" he reprimanded.

Truthfully I replied, "I was going to backtrack when they were gone in order to pick it up."

Donnie shook his head and placed his hands on his jean clad hips. "And make extra work for yourself? Why the Hell did you even try to avoid 'em anyway."

"The girl," I said. "When I went to school, so many kids made fun of me for my size. I know it's probably not their fault but they don't know how to censor themselves...so I just get scared again whenever I see one."

Donnie looked at me in a bit of shame and I could tell then that he had probably been somebody that would have teased me in school too. Knowing that I was attracted to a man like that, one who had probably wounded people that were a lot like me, I didn't know what to do.

I suffered a similar feeling when I saw a group of boys coming up, all teenagers and all very rowdy. Donnie had instinctively knocked over a bunch of clothes, men's jeans, for me to pick up as another excercise to help me break free of my shyness. When I looked up at him, my eyes feeling as if they were practically bugging out from their sockets in terror, he saw the gang approaching and pushed me out of the way. "Hide behind those plaid shirts!" he commanded.

My companion then squatted down in order to pick up the fallen clothing. The boys made some remark to Barksdale as they passed and he threw one back at them just as rudely. I saw the sudden appearance of a raised finger as the boys walked away laughing. When they were gone, I left my hiding place and knelt down to help my friend return the jeans to their proper place.

"Thanks," I said shyly, avoiding his eyes.

"No problem," Donnie returned. 

I saw the redneck holding an armful of jeans to return to the rack when I saw him hesitate. It was only after I followed his gaze that I knew what had distracted him: my own rack, somewhat on display since I was bent over. 

I knew that I should reposition myself to return to him his attention but found that I kind of enjoyed it resting there so just went about my business as Donnie Barksdale forgot momentarily about his own, focusing on mine instead.

* * *

We were sitting in a restaurant later on, having a meal torn between being lunch or supper. I enjoyed watching Barksdale eat. He wasn't exactly a slovenly eater even if he wasn't the most polite either. I think he was always confused that I wasn't a pig myself for being overweight. I somehow got the impression that Valerie Barksdale had probably been rail thin and ate like a bird and he equated undereating with being skinny and overeating with being fat. 

"So how'd you get to be so shy anyway?" he asked boldly after taking a slurp from his milkshake. "The kids?"

I nodded. "I guess it was just innate though."

He looked at me in obvious need for my assistance.

"Natural," I said, becoming a dictionary momentarily. "I feel like I would have been shy anyway though. Of course, my dad and grandmother probably didn't help any either."

"The porn watchers!" he exclaimed with a wide grin.

I nodded and laughed. "Yup. That's them. Dad was always teasing my sister and I. He got his ya-yas out of it And granny was always scowling and criticizing from her chair in the corner. My dad was...oh I'm sorry I'm rambling with nonsense and shit again."

"Nah," Donnie reassured. "You ain't interrupting the movie this time."

I smiled. "My dad loved her more than my mother, sister and I. He spent more time over at her house than at ours. I never knew him to take a single bath at home. I told my mom once, when I was a child, that he must be the dirtiest man alive. But he was really taking them all over at her house."

From Donnie Barksdale's expression I saw that he found this uncomfortably _strange_.

Which it was.

"Coincidentally," I added, "As a gift to my mom when my sister, Tara, was born, she gave her the last bit of soap on a rope from when my dad was a baby.

"My parents separated because of a green carpet. I can remember it like it was yesterday. Once when my mom, Tara and I had gone into town we came back and there it was installed on the front doorstep. Granny had it put it in when we were out of the house because she knew my mother wouldn't like it. None of us did. It was this horrible color of green...not pretty at all. Dad and mom had gotten into this huge fight. Dad took granny's side. He chose her. We went that day to my grandfather's place in the city; it was supposed to be for just a visit but we never left."

Donnie continued to eat as I continued to reminisce about a past now too far there to cause me quite as much pain as it did once. "He paid child support for a while. Then right before my sister's birthday, around when my kidneys were causing me trouble, he stopped. Said he wasn't going to do it anymore. That nobody could make him. And they didn't.

"Tara and I used to joke that it was because he couldn't see our cat anymore. We had taken it along with us. The cat was called Figaro and my dad always asked to see him whenever he came up to visit. But Figaro was scared to death of him too and started hiding anytime he heard dad's voice. We didn't have the heart to bring poor Figaro out of the far back of the closet anymore to see him. And so when dad stopped paying support we thought maybe our Father was just coming to see him...that maybe if we'd just taken the time to drag the cat out of the closet dad might not have abandoned us and things wouldn't have been so hard.

"But it was okay. He wasn't a very nice man and he used to say things that hurt us all the time and hit each of us once so..."

Donnie was looking at me sadly now. I felt bad for wrecking the mood but now felt compelled to finish it. "When my mom saw a neighbour once she said dad was throwing granny's used diapers down the hill at the back of our old house. The smell was awful they complained. And a few years after that Mom received a call from a funeral home saying that her mother-in-law's ashes had been sitting on their desk in a urn for months and would she like to pick them up. She said most certainly not. Those were her _ex_ mother-in-law's ashes and her _ex_ -husband's responsibility. Turned out, they'd been bugging dad to claim them but he wouldn't. It was funny. He'd chosen her over us but after she was gone he wouldn't even pay a couple of dollars for what remained of her."

Donnie returned to his milkshake again which reminded me of the final bittersweet note to my father's life.

"Dad died a few years after that. From what I heard, he had an aneurism in the local Dairy Queen. I like to joke it was the ultimate brainfreeze."

Milkshake shot out of Donnie Barksdale's nose and hit me square on my chest. I grabbed a napkin and started to wipe the bit of ice cream and milk from out of the top part of his beard. "Gotta be careful with that," I warned. "You don't want to get it too."

I felt his small brown eyes on me before I cracked a smile and met them. We both started laughing in the restaurant, garnering all of the other patrons' attention. My shyness only flared slightly, however, under Donnie's dark gaze and bright smile.

* * *

We stumbled for a bit like that during the next few weeks, learning about each other and trying to also help each other cope with our social problems. I learned that Donnie couldn't read very well until he entered his middle twenties. He had taught himself a bit here and there after being bilked on some contracts. His mother was still alive but they rarely saw one another except for the money he had sent her every now and then.

"Money that you're now robbing me blind of, woman," he joked once.

"Well you're doing much better," I had commented looking down at my clipboard.

Barksdale's eyes had followed, lingering on my chest along the way. I couldn't get to upset. I found my eyes often going to his jeans. 

Eventually I started to notice that the redneck was beginning to avoid looking at me: my chest or my face. A strange smell was also hovering about him and I realized that it was Donnie himself. I didn't think he was bathing anymore and with his physically exerting work it was creating an odor akin to a certain cartoon skunk. The belief that he was intentionally trying to keep me at a distance occurred to me.

He was becoming irritable and cranky in my presence but I hadn't the heart to dock his pay.

Things came to a kind of head in the produce section of the local supermarket one day when Donnie had brought me there in order to combat my social phobia once more.

A few weeks back, he had ordered me to stop wearing loose black t shirts and start adorning clothing that wasn't so inconspicuous now and then. Finding that I missed Donnie's eyes on me, I had chosen to wear a pair of black jeans and a blue peasant top that accentuated my bust. My cleavage was on display again and when I went to Barksdale's house he took one look at me and nearly turned red. He started avoiding looking at me shortly thereafter and I found myself equally upset because his own pair of jeans looked about one size tighter. We were both in equal amounts of personal torment when we arrived at the store and wound up at the fruit and vegetable area. 

"Damn stupid things!" Barksdale stated as he stomped over to the cantaloupes and started to feel them. "They always put the worst ones out...these are practically about to turn into mush they're so fucking old. Might as well put 'em on the reduced table."

I walked over to them thinking about how my grandmother used to always bring us moldy old food from off of that particular table while my father would buy expensive steaks to eat over at her house. There was only one time granny had bought over decent food and that was because the A&P had messed up her order with someone else's. It had contained lasagna and chocolate chip cookies, tomato sauces and fresh ground beef.

Granny had looked at it and said, "You know what those people were?"

"What?" my mother had asked.

"Jewish!" Grandmother had replied without a clue. Grandmother was antisemitic while dad's two heroes had been Elvis Presley and Adolf Hitler.

As I studied one of the melons, not finding anything wrong with them, I suddenly turned and caught Donnie peering down my shirt, or more accurately at the tops of my peeking breasts. He was breathing heavily and looked simply ravenous.

Realizing I had seen him, Braksdale blushed and returned to complaining about the different various fruits, their prices, sizes, textures and ripeness, the whole time using a bunch of nasty expletives which made the other shoppers stop to glare at him. He was losing his temper badly as he manhandled the produce, working himself into a temper fit he had successfully managed to hold at bay for weeks.

"Why'd they bother putting them on display if there ain't no point cuz you can't do with 'em what you _want_ to because you gotta behave yourself!" he finally exclaimed as he held two honeydews up, one in each hand, squeezing them as his gaze rested on my chest hungrily. His eyes then raised to fix me with a look of desperate anger. 

I looked down at his too tight jeans made even tighter by...

And blushed. Upset then too, I stomped down to the zucchinis, cucumbers and eggplants.

"Well what about these huh!" I asked holding up a zucchini. "What's a good girl supposed to do when they're always catching her eye?"

I then put the long green vegetable down to grab a nearby eggplant. "Or this? What does she do when she's never tasted one before, and it looks really _good_ but she doesn't know what to do or how to eat one. And she has to behave herself too?"

We were now the ones glaring at one another across the supermarket aisle, each clutching a piece of merchandise from the supermarket. Not knowing what else to do, I hugged the eggplant close to my chest. Donnie eyed it placed between my cleavage and roared in frustration, smashing the melons in his hands on to the floor. I followed suit, slamming the eggplant to meet the tiles below.

Suddenly we were grabbing any fruit or vegetable shaped similarly to the destroyed one and hurling those to the ground also. Donnie's s would more often than not burst while mine just kind of lay there. 

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" we both heard somebody exclaiming and turned to find the livid store manager completely aghast at the sight of us standing amid an armageddon of his produce.

"She started it," Donnie blamed, pointing his finger at me .

I picked up the smallest cuke I could find and beaned him on the head with it.

* * *

Two hours later we were sitting on the curb outside of the store three feet away from one another. It had taken us that long to clean the mess up with strict instructions never to grace the establishment again with our antisocial persons.

"What am I supposed to do?" I whined. "I don't drive and this was the closest grocers within walking distance of my house!"

After a few seconds of silence, I heard Donnie Barksdale say gruffly, "I'll take you in my pickup to the next closest one whenever you want."

"You'd do that?" I asked softly in surprise.

"Yeah...I _did_ start it after all."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

I found myself scooting over to where the redneck sat, still afraid to look at me. He smelled riper than the food in the store had but it didn't really matter. I found myself easily doing what the poor harrassed pussycat rarely if ever did with her skunk: I kissed my smelly companion's head where the cucumber had landed and then rested my own head on his broad shoulder. His hand came to rest around my waist and we sat there for a while: Pepe and his plump Penelope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm realizing that I'm telling Keanu Reeves' characters things I'd like to tell him but will never get the chance to. :/


	4. A Goodbye, a Bus, a Clipboard, an Invitation and Several Kisses (Pig)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After visiting a friend out of State, I return to find out that Donnie reverted to his anger and was fired and evicted from the Church job and property where he lived! However everything turns out as we finally find the strength to confess our feelings to each other!

Donnie and I had grown more close to each other than either the Church or we had both foreseen.

It had just _happened_.

But while it had taken place I wasn't sure that either of our problems had completely been cured or had simply been only somewhat improved. Donnie still had the occasional outburst of temper while I still retreated into my shell whenever I had the opportunity to. I knew that it was only with Donnie standing by my side that I felt more courageous and strong enough to greet people or venture out.

In return, I began to suspect that it was merely my presence around Donnie Barksdale which kept him acting relatively civil, polite and restrained.

I knew that the true test for us would come when I needed to go out of town in order to attend to some other Church related business. It was too far for Donnie to take me, the Church not allowing him those days off since a deadline had been set for the addition to the building Barksdale was helping work on; so I had to travel by bus instead. He had driven me to the station to see me off and we had stood in awkward silence for a while.

"I left your meals in the fridge," I commented. "They are all marked and you only need to reheat them."

After our supermarket exile, and since Donnie was driving me to the nearest available one that would allow us both in, I had started to make meals for him regularly which we would eat together. It was part gratitude and partly, also, because I liked cooking for him. Even if he didn't always know the right thing to say he always was remarkably complimentary regarding a good home cooked meal. We would eat them together and talk a bit, usually with Barksdale trying to do both actions at once, and then we'd watch TV or a movie together. My friend had expanded his video collection to include films without a letter X in their rating. It was usually a comfortable affair. Although sometimes decidedly not, especially during those moments when there was a kissing scene or anything remotely close to it. Then we would both find ourselves becoming awkward and aware of one another's bodies once again.

Not to mention, our feelings that we weren't exactly sure of.

Another awkward moment occurred when it came time for us to say goodbye and for me to board the bus.

"I'm gonna miss you, Erin," Donnie said suddenly just as I was about to leave. "I never thought I'd say it but I'll miss that damn clipboard too."

"We'll both be back," I comforted shyly. "You behave yourself while I'm gone though. No fights!"

He looked at me with bad boy amusement. "And you behave yourself too; be sure to say hello to everybody that you see," he scolded.

I smiled.

In the next moment, I wasn't just a foot away from Donnie Barksdale's lumbering frame but inside of his arms as mine went about him too and I wasn't sure if he had been the one to embrace me first or if it were the other way around. In any case, neither of us objected.

"So what's it feel like to hug a fat girl after all of those malnourished little twigs that you've been with?" I couldn't help but ask.

"It's nice," he replied. "Kind of like holding a giant boob."

I rolled my eyes before pressing my forehead into his chest and then gently broke away from him altogether.

As the bus drove away, I watched out my window while Donnie Barksdale gave me a wave before sticking his hands back into the pocket of his jeans; the same jeans which had always given me such trouble getting them out of my mind. I realized then that I was going to miss them and the man that filled them so nicely. I was in love with Donnie and reveled in the feeling now that we were parting.

I offered him my own little wave and viewed him until he was only a sad little blur at the end of the highway the bus was hurtling away from. Donnie had stood their watching my departure the whole way, honestly, I believe, a tiny bit heartbroken to see me go. When he had been stolen from my vision entirely, I sat quietly by myself on the seat wondering if we had only been made codependent, the two of us, by the Church's little experiment. I felt hopelessly lost without him as he had looked woeful at the prospect of being without me.

But then again codependency usually featured people becoming worse when they were together; Donnie and I seemed to bring out the best in each other. If needing someone to help you get by and give you strength when you were feeling down or at your weakest was a bad thing I would begin to doubt that reasoning entirely. After all, God had given Eve to Adam to help him and so he would not be so alone. 

Even after the fall and betrayal, He had still let them have each other to find comfort in.

* * *

When I finally arrived back home, I wanted to go and see Donnie first but an urgent message on my answering machine from the Church made me worried enough to postpone it until afterwards. I had the nagging worry that it had to do with my friend and that it could not wait.

I was right. The Minister greeted me with solemn faced disapproval as I sat in a chair in his office, the infamous clipboard held a little too tightly in my plump fingers.

"We had to let Donnie go I'm afraid Erin," Reverend Dalton informed me. "Two days ago he got into a dilly of a fight with another man whom was also working on the addition to the back of the Church. Some parishioners saw it and became _concerned_ , especially when they found out that Mr. Barksdale was once found guilty of murder!"

"But he was innocent!" I cried. "The woman that helped convict him found the real killer! Donnie was cleared of all charges!"

"Yes," Dalton said gravely. "But his violence still remains. You tried your best but the experiment was a failure it seems."

"Did you even ask him why he did it?" frustration was getting the better of my usual timidity.

"No, no, no," the Reverend shook his head. "What would have been the point? The damage had been done. We told Barksdale that he has a week to move elsewhere and take his belongings."

"I can solve that problem," I said. "He can move in with me!"

"Erin!" I seemed to have earned the man of the cloth's shock. "That is most unwise given Barksdale's temper and past violence towards women. Not to mention that you are not married!"

I stood up in anger. "Well I don't give a damn! He can touch my melons anytime he wants to! And if he let's me, I'll taste his eggplant even if I don't know what the Hell I'm doing! And we'll be perfectly _happy_! God will smile down on the two of us and we don't need you if we have _Him_!"

Dalton's shock, and not to mention confusion, was growing. He straightened his suit and finally found the way to speak past his befuddlement. "It appears that the only result of our linking you with Mr. Barksdale was that he had a bad influence on you."

My face was turning deep red and I looked down at the clipboard. "Well in all of tarnation! Take this and shove it up your ass!"

I hurled the clipboard straight at the man and Reverend Dalton barely managed to catch the flying object. I stormed out of the rectory, deciding I'd go back to worshipping in my heart where the wise said God truly dwelt in the end.

* * *

When I arrived at Donnie's house, I opened the door to find it wasn't locked. This fact sent a jolt of worry through me, making me fear that I was too late and my love had already left and found new accommodations before I could extend to him my own invitation.

"Donnie!" I cried out in fright.

But the man was standing in the living room apparently packing away his beloved porn collection. It lay on the floor in a box, neatly piled away.

"Erin," he muttered as his eyes met mine. "What are you doing back? You never called. I would have picked you up at the station."

I closed the door behind me. "I took a taxi. I wanted to surprise you."

Barksdale looked embarrassed suddenly. "Well I've got a surprise for you too, girl."

"I know," I whispered. "You were fired and evicted."

"Good news spreads fast," Donnie said. He kicked the box clear across the floor. It hit the wall with a thud and some of the videos fell out. He then sat down in his favorite chair, running both of his hands through his long dark hair.

I ran forward and knelt before him. "What happened Donnie?"

The man looked upset, obviously he didn't want to tell me what had gone on at work while I had been away. This frightened me terribly seeing as though usually the man was far from suffering a loss of words.

"Please tell me what it was?" I pleaded, touching his denim clad knee.

Donnie looked at war with himself. Looking down into my beseeching eyes he looked even more reluctant.

"Oh please Donnie!" I begged.

A sigh issued forth out from the sensuous lips framed by his dark beard. "One of the guys at work asked me where my fat girlfriend was," Donnie Barksdale confessed. "So I beat the tar out of him."

The words hurt but not as much as why I thought it had angered him so badly. "Because you didn't like him thinking that I was your girlfriend," I said sadly.

Donnie looked at me in exasperation. "Hell no! You are my girlfriend, aren't you? We may not have said as much but...That hardly counts. It's that he called you fat!"

Feeling ecstatically happy, I threw my arms around the hillbilly's neck.

"Erin," he said, hugging me tentatively. "That barmaid my daddy left my momma for? She was a big girl. I always kind of hated 'em for that reason. Couldn't let myself be with someone like that not to mention let the guys tease me for it. But when he called you that...I just lost it. And I'd happily do it again."

"I wasn't very much better while I was away," I confessed. "I probably said hello to about one person. I'm still as shy as I ever was...Except for when I'm with you."

Donnie laughed gruffly into my neck, holding me more fiercely. "And I'm still just a short fused bastard. But even though you drive me crazy, woman, I don't want to hurt you. Ever. I guess, we're both not very good at fighting our problems without each other."

I parted from my redneck. "That's why...I was wondering, if you wouldn't mind that is..."

"Damn don't be so shy girl!" Barksdale reprimanded affectionately.

"Would you like to move in with me?" I invited.

Joy seized the man's expression until doubt crept in. "What would Dalton say if he found out?"

I smiled brightly. "I already told him."

The man looked both proud and taken off guard. "What did old Dalton have to say about that?"

"That you were a bad influence. I just told him where he could stick his stupid clipboard."

Seeing Barksdale looking suddenly smug, I couldn't help but ask him why.

"Because," he began. "I must have gotten somewhat through that shy shell of yours for you to say that to him. I'm mustn't be too bad of a teacher, after all."

I laughed and rolled my eyes before kissing him quickly but passionately. Donnie looked surprised again but also just as pleased with himself. "See! There's another example of it!"

To shut my prideful beau up, I kissed him again only this time longer; infact, long enough for Donnie to return it. The feeling of his lips was wonderfully exhilarating as was his one hand frantically rubbing my back while his other went to the back of my head.

We fell on to the floor and I gasped as I felt myself growing excited, especially when Donnie undid the first few buttons of my shirt and started to kiss the revealed skin of my breasts. I wriggled pleasantly under the man, running my hands through his hair.

"You thought you'd burn in Hell for showing a virgin a blue film on Church property," I whispered into his ear. "What's your stance on taking her virginity right on the floor of that very same place.?"

Donnie Barksdale took his head away from my breasts, out of breath, and looked at me longingly. "Well that's a different matter entirely, " he replied.

"How come?"

"Because I love you, Erin," Donnie answered softly.

"I love you too, Donnie," I said in return, touching his face.

We started to kiss once more but I almost started to laugh from the overly careful touch of his fingertips on the exposed skin of my chest. I broke away to tell my lover that he needn't be so cautious. "I think you should know something," I stated.

"What's that?" he asked.

"I'm very ticklish so don't be afraid...you can be a little rough, if you want. In fact, it would be better for me that way. Just go ahead and do what Pygmalion did, Donnie Barksdale."

"And what's that Erin Kelly Smyth?" Donnie asked me in brusque amusement.

"Go ' _hog_ ' wild!" I declared before kissing him passionately again.

And I am _very_ happy to say that he did.

All that there is left to say now is...

 _ **A ba dee bi dee That's All Folks!**_ ;D <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sniff...Sniff...
> 
> I'm gonna miss this one. I found it fun and cute to write.


End file.
